Shelly Struggles to Shine

by Kit Rosewater

  Shelly was on the edge of her seat. Bree dug through the blockers and was right behind the Brawling Dolls jammer. The two jammers looped around the rink. They were heading for the pack. Kenzie made the “B” sign.

  Again? Shelly shook her head. The Brawling Dolls already knew what they were up to. The Dolls jammer wasn’t hard to keep back, but the blockers had it out for Bree. The Daredevils had to focus on helping their own jammer.

  “Head forward!” Bree said. That meant she wanted the Daredevils blockers to stay at the back of the pack.

  Tomoko curved her skates in, and this time she saw the Brawling Dolls blocker waiting for Bree. But the Dolls jammer shot right by her. Kenzie and Jules sprung in front of the jammer.

  Fffttt!

  “End jam. Brawling Dolls: two points, Daredevils: zero.” Lo held up two fingers on one hand and made the other into a fist. She blew the whistle again and waved at Shelly. “Daredevils blocker Bomb Shell, back in!”

  Shelly shot up from the penalty box and raced to her team.

  Everyone, even Bree, was waiting for her at the pack line.

  Kenzie knocked Shelly’s helmet. “Glad you’re back, Bomb Shell,” she said.

  “We need you!” Bree added. “I’m getting pummeled out there.”

  Shelly leaned in. “I was watching,” she said. “And the Brawling Dolls jammer isn’t too hard to handle. Tomonater, think you can take her this next jam?”

  Tomoko nodded. “Can do.”

  “Great,” Shelly said. “That leaves the three of us to help Bree.”

  “What are you thinking?” Jules asked.

  Shelly smiled. “Three words: Flying. Circle. Doom.”

  Bree pumped her arm. “Yes!”

  “All right,” Kenzie said. “I like it.”

  The girls threw their hands together.

  “What are we?” Bree yelled.

  “Dare—”

  “Devils!”

  Shelly tossed her hand high and stood between Kenzie and Jules. She took a deep breath in, then out. She hoped the game play would work.

  Lo signaled the pack. “Jam two—pack, go!”

  Shelly skated in line with Kenzie and Jules. Left skate, right skate, just like they practiced. The three blockers joined hands. The jammers were coming behind them.

  “Ready?” Kenzie asked.

  Jules and Shelly nodded.

  “Caw-caw! Caw-caw!” the three cried.

  Kenzie and Jules let their hands go just as Bree got to the pack. They clasped hands again behind her. Kenzie and Shelly leaned forward and grabbed hold of each other’s hands. Now Bree was inside the circle.

  “Caw-caw!”

  “What are you doing?” a Brawling Dolls blocker yelled.

  “Flying Circle of Doom!” Shelly answered.

  Shelly, Kenzie, and Jules pushed Bree toward the front edge of the pack. Kenzie and Shelly dropped their handhold and Bree shot forward.

  “Lead jammer—Daredevils!” Mambo said.

  Shelly grinned.

  “All right!”

  She bumped fists with Kenzie and then Jules. Maybe Shelly wasn’t the smartest planner or the best blocker, but when it came to plays like the Flying Circle of Doom, the Daredevils couldn’t do things without her.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  “End jam. Daredevils: four points, Brawling Dolls: two points.”

  “That’s four to four total,” Tomoko said. “We’re really in it now!”

  Kenzie signaled everyone to huddle. The Daredevils put their heads together, coming up with new plays for every jam. They used their Crying Banshee move and their Labyrinth move. Over halftime, Kenzie even came up with some new game plays for the team to try.

  “Jam seven!”

  “Jam ten!”

  “End jam eleven,” Lo called. “Daredevils: two points, Brawling Dolls: two points. Last jam—set.”

  “Daredevils,” Kenzie said. “We’re only down by three. We need to get Bree through the whole pack and stop the Dolls jammer.”

  “What’s your plan?” Tomoko asked.

  Shelly leaned in.

  “The Madame President,” Kenzie said, her eyebrows wiggling. The Madame President was one of the Daredevils’ newest plays. They had never tried it out on wheels before.

  “Usually we only have two security guards,” Kenzie said. “But I think in this case, we’ll need three to get Bree through. Tomoko, mind handling the other jammer on your own again?”

  “Wait.” Shelly waved. “Can I take the jammer?”

  Tomoko’s eyes widened. “You want to?”

  “Yeah,” Shelly said. She tightened her hands into fists. “I can do it.”

  Kenzie patted Shelly’s shoulder. “We believe in you, Bomb Shell!”

  Shelly smiled. When the blockers broke the huddle and got in line, Shelly felt ready. She would shift her hips back and forth, the way Tomoko did on the track. She would throw herself into hip checks like Jules. She would stay in front of the jammer and outskate her. She would outsmart the other team. It was all going to come together.

  “Jam twelve—pack, go!”

  Shelly skated alongside the pack. This time she didn’t want to disappear into the group. She didn’t want to stand away from her team either. Shelly waved her arms, letting the lights bounce off her yellow-sequined sleeves. She wanted the audience to see she was a Daredevil, and she deserved to be there.

  Clack-clack-clack.

  Bree was coming fast. Shelly turned and watched as Kenzie, Jules, and Tomoko put a hand to their ear, the way they had seen the Secret Service do for the president. They threw their arms out and made way for Bree to get through.

  Click-clack, click-clack.

  That was the sound of the other jammer’s skates. Shelly took a deep breath and braced herself. The jammer wasn’t so hard to block. She had seen Tomoko take her on again and again. Shelly knew could do it too.

  “Argh,” Shelly grunted. She swished her hips from side to side.

  But the jammer kept swerving around Shelly. Shelly had to pump her arms and legs to catch up.

  “Hi-yah!” Shelly said. She tried to aim a hip check for the jammer.

  But the jammer moved out of the way. Shelly was going to lose her! Shelly dove for the jammer again.

  “Backup!” someone called.

  Suddenly Jules was next to Shelly.

  “Double trouble!” Jules yelled.

  Shelly looked over. “What?”

  Jules didn’t answer. She hurtled forward. Shelly followed until they were on either side of the Brawling Dolls jammer. Jules leaned her hip out, and Shelly understood. She leaned her hip out too.

  “Hi-yah!” Jules threw her hip into the jammer. This time, the jammer stumbled. Shelly waited, then bumped her again on the other hip. The jammer fell back.

  “Lead jammer—Daredevils!”

  Jules gave a karate chop to the air. “Hi-yah! We did it!” She grinned at Shelly.

  Shelly wanted to grin back, but for some reason she didn’t feel like smiling. They had stopped the jammer just like she’d wanted to. But Tomoko hadn’t needed backup. Why couldn’t Shelly do things as well as the others? Something sour settled in the pit of Shelly’s stomach.

  Fffttt!

  The announcer took hold of the microphone.

  “And that’s our first bout!” he called. “The final score is twenty-four to twenty-three, with the Daredevils snatching that lead in the final jam! Let’s give a huge round of applause to the Brawling Dolls for coming to life and knocking the cabbage patch right out of us! And give a huge round to the Daredevils for setting the track a-whirlin’!”

  The audience in the stands whooped and cheered. The Brawling Dolls and Daredevils lined up on either side of the track. They held their arms out and high-fived one another.

  “Good bout!” the Dolls called. “Good bout! Nice skating.”

  “Good job boxing me out,” Bree told the one Dolls blocker. “You made passes almost impossible.”

 
“You found a way through,” the Dolls blocker said, smiling.

  “Nice uniforms,” the Dolls jammer said. “They were super distracting. But in a good way.”

  Kenzie nudged Shelly.

  “Oh,” Shelly said. She looked up from the floor. “Thanks.”

  The two teams made their way to the stands where the other skaters sat.

  “Are we skating again?” Tomoko asked Razzle Dazzle.

  Raz shook her head. “Nah, we only have time for four bouts, so every team can play once. Good job, though, y’all!” She jabbed Jules’s elbow playfully.

  The Daredevils scooted down one slat of bleachers until they were all sitting in a row. Another Austin league team, the Cow Pokes, scrambled up and onto the track. The New Mexico unicorn team stood up as well. They were wearing their horns, just like in the picture. But one by one, each player pulled her horn off and left it in her seat before she took to the track. Tomoko was right; the horns were detachable.

  Shelly propped her chin in her hand as she watched the next three bouts unfold between the Cow Pokes vs. the Unicorns, the Taco Bout-its vs. the Shady Birds, and the Cherry Pits vs. the Block ’Em Sock ’Em Ro-bouts. She watched the teams come together for different plays. She watched them split up the work, taking on different blockers and jammers on their own. She watched the really fast jammers, the tough hip-checkers, and the blockers who paddled jammers back and forth like they were playing Ping-Pong.

  Shelly sighed. The Daredevils said she was important to the team. But still, there wasn’t anything Shelly was best at. She was more like the team helper.

  Fffttt!

  Look Out blew the whistle on the fourth and final bout.

  “And the Cherry Pits sweep up the win with a handy thirty points!” the announcer crooned. “Give a hand to the Block ’Em Sock ’Em Ro-bouts, who definitely rocked the Pits around the rink. And give a hand to the Cherry Pits, for bringing back one heck of a sour punch!”

  Shelly and the others stood and cheered. The teams on the track high-fived. They came back to the stands and squished in with the others.

  Mambo Rambo stepped next to the microphone and whispered to the announcer.

  “Huh?”

  The announcer pulled back his flamingo cap. He cupped his ear and leaned in toward Mambo. “Oh, right! The Austin league coaches have conferred and would like to award today’s Star Skater title to Loriel Pacheco from the Brawling Dolls!”

  The Dolls blocker who had been on Bree’s tail throughout the bout stood up from the stands. The other skaters clapped her on the back and pumped their arms over and over. Bree stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled. Shelly clapped too. The blocker had been really good— definitely the best on her team. It made sense that she won.

  As Loriel stepped onto the rink, Mambo took out a necklace with a glittery gold star and threaded it over Loriel’s shoulders. Loriel smiled and blushed, then turned for the stands.

  “Hold on a second there,” the announcer called. “The Albuquerque coaches have also made their choice for Star Skater from the Austin league.” The announcer raised one of his bright-pink flamingo wings. “Molly Moorgan from the Cherry Pits!”

  Shelly made her hands smack together over and over as Molly joined Loriel on the rink. She watched as the two Star Skaters waved and showed off their prizes. She turned and gazed at all the other skaters still sitting next to her on the stands.

  Everyone worked so hard in the tournament, Shelly realized. But they couldn’t all be Star Skaters. Shelly picked at the explosion cutouts on her elbow pads. She knew she was a good skater too. But maybe she just wasn’t meant to stand out.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  After the cheers and clapping died down, both Star Skaters turned and sat back in the stands.

  “Well, we’re all out of stars,” the announcer said. He waved a slip of paper. “But I do have one more name here.”

  Shelly looked down at her laces. She held her hands a few inches apart, ready to make them clap again.

  The announcer peered at the note. “Thanks to all who voted, the viewers’ choice for Best Team Uniform goes to . . . the Daredevils!”

  Shelly froze. Her hands didn’t move. She looked up.

  “That’s us!” Shelly said.

  Bree threw her arm around Shelly’s side. “That’s you!”

  The Daredevils screamed and cheered and stomped their skates.

  Shelly rose from the bench. Her knee pads were shaking. She made it to the end of the bleacher row, then turned to her teammates.

  “Come on!” she said.

  Kenzie grinned and rolled after Shelly. Bree was behind her, Tomoko behind her, and Jules made another “Hi-yah!” as she skated onto the rink.

  Shelly stood next to the announcer. She looked out into the audience and beamed. Her parents were sitting together, waving at her.

  “Daredevils,” the announcer said, “what made you choose to have different uniforms instead of the same one?”

  He passed the microphone down to Shelly.

  “Well,” Shelly said, “even though we’re all Daredevils, each one of us is really different. We wanted to stand out, but also come together on the track.”

  “I’ll say!” the announcer spoke into the mic again. “Let’s have one more round for the viewers’ choice, as well as every skater here who played their darn tootin’ hearts out this afternoon!”

  “Wooooo!”

  The Daredevils skated to the bleachers and pulled the next row of skaters up from their seats. Soon all eight junior league teams were bowing and waving and dancing over the track. The announcer flapped his wings and stepped aside. Music blared out from the speakers.

  “Hey!” Tomoko said. “We look like disco balls!”

  Jules held her arms out and spun around in circles. She made it three times before falling over.

  “Or strobe lights,” Bree said. “Bom-che, bom-che, bom-che, bom-che.”

  Kenzie and Shelly pumped their hands up and down. They wiggled and linked arms and did the robot next to Tomoko.

  Soon all the friends and families in the stands were making their way onto the track. Shelly’s mom and dad waited for Shelly to skate over. Her mom bent down and gave Shelly a hug.

  “I’m so proud of you, Shell,” she said. “Your designs really came together!”

  “Yeah,” Shelly said. She looked at her dad sheepishly. “Some of them.”

  Her dad grinned and pulled Shelly into a big bear hug of his own. “You did awesome, Bomb Shell,” he said. He held Shelly away from him and looked her over. “In fact . . . I think you’re carrying on your dad’s old nickname.”

  “I am?” Shelly asked. But she didn’t win a glittery star.

  “I’d say so, Miss Shiny!” Shelly’s dad pointed at the sequined uniforms on all the Daredevils.

  Shelly looked around, a slow smile spreading across her face as she watched her teammates shimmer under the lights. Shelly was shiny, but not like her dad. She was shiny in her own special way.

  Kenzie and her family shuffled over to Shelly and her parents.

  “I hear you’re the designer!” Kenzie’s dad said. “Congratulations, Bomb Shell!”

  “The Hazel Nuts could use your eye with our own look,” Kenzie’s mom said. “We’re overdue for a team makeover before our next bout.”

  Shelly blushed. “Thanks, Ms. E.”

  The other Daredevils and their families gathered around. Kenzie’s dad hoisted Kenzie’s little sister, Verona, on his hip.

  “Speaking of being overdue,” Kenzie’s dad said, “I think we owe you kids a celebration dinner! Who’s up for some tacos?”

  All the Daredevils—and Shelly’s dad—raised their hands. Shelly laughed as she took off her skates and turned them in to the rental counter. The crew met back in the locker room and carefully peeled off their sleeves. Instead of shoving them back into the paper bag, each member folded the sequined material and placed it into her own bag or backpack. They followed their families
out of the warehouse and into a perfect, warm Austin afternoon.

  Everyone spread over the sidewalk in clusters as they walked down South Congress to the taco stand. The Daredevils gathered at their own table. Shelly’s dad brought an armload of fizzy water for the girls to guzzle down as they waited for their tacos.

  Shelly had just brought the bottle to her lips when she heard a light tink-tink-tink against glass. She set her water down and looked across at Kenzie, who was tapping her nail against her own glass bottle.

  “Attention,” Kenzie said, but she only said it loud enough for the five Daredevils to hear. “I think we need some more official dubbing in the group.”

  “But we already have derby names!” Tomoko said.

  “Yeah,” Jules added. “And also, if anyone’s doing dubbing around here, it should be the Crown Jules!”

  Kenzie laughed. “OK, Crown Jules,” she said. “You be the one to dub, then. Thanks to some great points made by Bomb Shell, I think we all deserve some official titles.”

  Shelly clutched her bottle. “We do?”

  “Yep.” Kenzie nodded. “All of us. Without further ado, I dub Bree-Zee the speed demon of the Daredevils!”

  Jules reached out and regally tapped one of Bree’s shoulders, then the other.

  “And I dub the Tomonater the blocking queen!”

  Tomoko bowed her head as Jules touched her shoulders.

  Jules swiveled to Kenzie. “And I, Crown Jules, dub you, Kenzilla, as the mastermind of the Daredevils!”

  Kenzie waited to be dubbed, then turned to Jules. Shelly could feel her cheeks getting warm. Where was Kenzie going with this?

  “Crown Jules, please dub yourself the ultimate bruiser!”

  Jules patted both of her shoulders. “So dubbed!” she said.

  And now Kenzie turned to Shelly. “Bomb Shell, you were the first one to see each of us as special,” Kenzie said. “We’ve always been a team, but now, thanks to you, we’re all superhero skaters too!”

  Shelly’s head dropped a little. “Is that what I’m being dubbed for?” she asked.

  “No!” Kenzie brought her arm high. “I dub you, Bomb Shell, the creative genius of the Daredevils! The one who sees everything that’s possible! The artist who flings a pencil like a sword!”